A Company can achieve great savings if a good percentage of the staff are able to work from their own properties. In these difficult trading circumstances any suggestion of a cutback can be leapt upon and started out on almost straight away but the plan must have diligent deliberation and preparation. Each individual’s homelife will differ from the other members from within the company and due to this each case has to be look at on it’s own merits.

The first question that should be asked is if the role itself will work from a distance. Look at the job specification, tools required to carry out the role and what kind of communication is needed with other team of your business. Classic low level home working jobs are ones where the individual might conduct online surveys for money but if your requirement if at the opposite end of the intricacy scale you have to consider well. If all that looks fine you can then look individually at all those staff members who carry out that role.

In these situations you have to consider their conduct to date, has there been problems of trust or behaviour concerns in the past, do you consider them reliable, do they have a good sickness record. Set down a check list that you mark them against, if you find you are unable to allow them to work at home you will then have the support that confirms this.

Then consider with the staff member the feasibility of working from home. Do they have a detatched room or segment of their house where they can get away from the rest of the family and remain in peace? Which family members are at home throughout working hours, and are they likely to cause distractions?

Lastly consider the individual’s outlook to working at home, could they suffer from isolation? Are they likely to become too detached. Once all these considerations have been worked through you should have a decent idea if the proposal will work, of course circumstances can change but at least you will have done your best.

working from home used to be thought of as an option mainly by those working for themselves and the poorly paid and low skilled end of the jobs market. For the untrained, they could get involved in rather undemanding piece meal work as and when they were able and in return they gathered a small wage, the better paid of the bunch being the ones who could produce or deliver a high number of items per hour. For the self employed role, working from home normally meant sorting your receipts out over the kitchen table as you struggled to get your balance sheet up to date for the year.

With technology has come a transformation. More and more tasks can now be done at an employee’s home and this offers a great chance for businesses to take advantage of a trained and enthusiastic workforce whilst keeping their overheads down in terms of office space, canteen commitments and social space for employees.

For an individual to carry out their duties from home at the same time keeping the necessary links to their office or organisation they need surprisingly few items. Of course the first one would be a PC, or maybe better still, a notebook, so that they are able to access emails, internet, skype etc. Preferably the machine should have a webcam to alleviate some of the isolation felt by the employee. Next a fast internet connection is needed. Many homes already have this so this could bring about another possible cost saving for the organisation, although a part payment to the bill at least would be fair, especially if download amounts are high. The only other things needed are a good telephone, on a separate line to the worker’s home line and maybe a printer. Other items specifc to certain roles could be required in particular circumstances but overall there is no extra cost for a home worker than an office worker and the pluses can be considerable.

As employers catch on to the improved possibilities there will be more alternative for those wishing to work from home and the “online surveys for money” sort of work will be one option in a large range of roles.